I Was Caught up in a Hero Summoning, but That World Is at Peace (WN)

Chapter 2569 - Intermission: An Emotion Whose Name I Do Not Know

My personal creed is that moderation is best in all things in life. Human beings aren’t made to constantly give 100% at all times. If you keep pushing yourself at full power nonstop, eventually something is bound to break.

That’s why I think using around 70% of your strength in everyday life is enough. Of course, if you live long enough, there will probably be a few moments where you truly have to stake everything and give it your all. In those situations, you can give 100%, even 120% if necessary. But that’s only for extraordinary circumstances.

I don’t want to exhaust myself trying my hardest through ordinary daily life, and I’d rather avoid effort whenever possible.

It’s not like I look down on people who work hard with everything they’ve got. I do think effort is important, and I think people who can genuinely give their all are amazing…… it’s just that I personally don’t want to work that hard, and I’d rather avoid effort whenever I can.

It’s not that I lack desires. I want money, and I want to eat delicious food too…… but it’s not like I dream of owning more wealth than I could ever spend and living extravagantly, nor do I want to taste every delicacy in the world. As long as I can live comfortably without hardship, that’s enough for me.

Maybe you could call me detached. Maybe even dried up. But honestly, I’m not dissatisfied with my life, and somehow or another, I enjoy living it well enough.

I think labor is universally awful, and I hate the structure of society where you can’t survive without working. Still, if I were to spend my days doing absolutely nothing and living in complete laziness, that probably wouldn’t be very enjoyable either…… when I think about how much more satisfying holidays feel because of the daily grind, maybe work, despite being awful, is necessary for a fulfilling life.

I like alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling, I hate troublesome things, and I don’t really have any strong beliefs or pride to speak of…… I’m fully aware that makes me kind of a worthless person, but as long as I’m not causing trouble for anyone else…… I think living leisurely and happily is best, so I don’t really worry about it.

I may think work is awful and admit that I’m a bit of a scumbag, but that doesn’t mean I do my job carelessly or slack off.

I take my work seriously…… I just don’t give it absolutely everything I have.

It’s not like some dramatic event in my past changed my outlook on life, or that I had some defining trigger that made me think this way. I’ve simply always been like this.

And for someone like me, the three people who arrived here from another world because of a summoning accident…… well, to be honest, I didn’t particularly care.

After the summoning accident actually happened and it was decided that Kaito-kun, Aoi-chan, and Hina-chan would be staying at the mansion, they became a frequent topic of conversation among the servants and maids for quite some time.

Especially Kaito-kun, who, for various reasons, was the first man to visit Lilia-chan’s mansion in ages, people had plenty of both sympathetic and critical opinions about him.

The sympathy, well, I thought that was fine. He’d essentially been thrown into a completely unfamiliar world without warning, so of course, he was probably anxious about a lot of things. Wanting to look after him or help him seemed perfectly natural to me.

The negative opinions, on the other hand…… honestly, I just thought, Are these people idiots? Before being a man or an otherworlder, he was a guest personally welcomed by Lilia-chan, the lord of the mansion. I genuinely couldn’t understand the mindset of servants deciding how to treat him based on their personal likes or dislikes.

Whether someone is a woman or a man, a native or an otherworlder, if Lilia-chan acknowledges them as a guest, then they are a guest, and you treat them appropriately…… that seemed obvious to me, but maybe some of the former knights among the staff were just a little too hot-blooded.

Well, Illness-sensei was openly on Kaito-kun’s side, and plenty of people couldn’t stand up to her, so eventually the negative opinions naturally faded away……

As for my own thoughts on the matter, I truly couldn’t have cared less. Both sympathy and criticism take energy in their own way. I figured I’d just properly carry out the duties assigned to me as a maid of Lilia-chan’s mansion and interact with them normally. That was all there was to it.

……You really never know, huh? Somehow, before I realized it, I’d gotten surprisingly close with Kaito-kun. Hmm…… maybe that was it? Being pitied probably makes the person on the receiving end feel awkward too, so maybe having someone like me around, who treated him normally without overthinking things, felt comfortable for him.

I don’t really know though…… we simply got along well. Outside of work, I’m incredibly laid-back and pretty careless about most things…… and Kaito-kun’s also the type who relaxes a lot in private. Well, unlike me, he’s the kind of person who can properly pull himself together when it matters, so saying we’re alike might be rude, but…… we clicked in that easygoing sort of way, became close, and…… hmm, before I noticed it, I think I’d come to like him quite a lot.

It’s not like there was some dramatic event or a romance novel-style development. We just talked normally, got along, became friends, and as we spent more time together, my feelings naturally grew stronger…… it was probably something like that.

If I had to point to one thing, maybe it’s this? Being around Kaito-kun lets me relax and let my guard down, so maybe that’s why it feels comfortable. Hmm…… I don’t really know.

[……Vanessa-san? You suddenly look deep in thought. What’s wrong?]

[Hmm. I was just wondering what makes someone fall in love with another person…… but the more you think about it, the more troublesome it gets. I’m done thinking about it.]

[Ehhhh……]

[It doesn’t really matter what the trigger or reason was. As long as you understand your own feelings, that’s enough, right? So anyway, Kaito-kun, I really like you~~. Which is why…… give me that last egg~~.]

Human emotions really are complicated. It doesn’t feel pure enough to call it love in the romantic sense, yet at the same time, it’s not deep enough to call it devotion either.

I…… don’t know the proper words to describe the feelings I have for you.

So, well, it’s fine. As long as I know that I like you, that I’m happy spending time like this right now, and that I hope these kinds of days continue from now on too…… then that’s probably enough.

<Afterword>

Serious-senpai : [Like she herself said, I think the reason Kaito’s affection for her grew was because she treated him naturally from the very beginning, without pitying him or being hostile toward him. There were moments where he got flustered by her sexier side too, and it felt like Kaito was consciously seeing her as a woman…… d*mn it, she seriously has heroine-level potential…… the kind that could make for some really sweet romance scenes…… what a troublesome one……]